Coach Martinez was introduced to the sport of wrestling in 1976, when he joined the junior high school wrestling team. While there he won the Springfield City Championship in 1978. From there he went on to wrestle at Springfield Tech where he was a member of the 1980 Western Mass sectional champs, and the team finished third place in New England.

While at Springfield Tech, he went undefeated in his junior and senior seasons. As a senior he won the sectional but was unable to wrestle in the state championship because of Proposition 2½. After graduating he wrestled for the United States Navy.

Martinez started his coaching career in Oak Harbor, Washington where he was a youth coach from 1985 to 1986. Upon returning home after his military service, he was hired as an assistant coach in the 1987-88 season by Gerry Meyers, the head coach at West Springfield High School.

Mr. Martinez was hired as the Southwick head wrestling coach in November 1988 and he remained there as coach until March 2017. During his time at Southwick, Coach Martinez had a very successful career both on and off the mat. Although the team had never achieved a winning season prior to Martinez’s arrival, he was able to turn the program around immediately. In that first year, the team went 9-2 and finished third in the sectional tournament.

During his tenure at Southwick, which included 26 winning seasons, he amassed 389 wins. He never had a losing season in league competition and never finished below 2nd place. This included winning 14 league titles and going undefeated for 11 straight years in the league (1995 to 2006).

In sectional competition his teams won nine titles and finished second 7 times. He won his first title in 1997 and repeated this accomplishment in 1998. After finishing 2nd for three years, Coach Martinez led Southwick to seven straight sectional championships from 2002 to 2008. His second-place finishes were 1991, 1996, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2009 and 2010. The 2007 team was a state finalist, losing to Winchester in the finals.

During his tenure, Southwick was awarded the sportsmanship award by the Western Massachusetts Referees Association 5 times (1989, 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2003). Coach Martinez was named West Sectional Coach of the Year 6 times (1991, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2003, and 2006). At the state level, he coached 4 state champions, 22 state finalists and 63 state place finishers. At the sectional level, Coach Martinez produced 55 sectional champions and 61 sectional finalists; this included having at least one wrestler reach the finals in all 29 years at Southwick.

Coach Martinez would like to thank all the assistant coaches with whom he was privileged to work. The coaches (Sean Tingley, Dan Eplite, Dennis Brown, Dan Arnold, Tom Despard and Dave Whalley) were a big part of the team success. They brought wrestling experience and professionalism but, above all, they cared for the wrestlers. In the process, the coaching staff modeled how to become good people both on and off the mat.

Wrestling has been a big part of Coach Martinez’s life, as it has shown him how to meet challenges and persevere. By persevering, he has been able to achieve personal goals and pass these lessons to his family and his students.